Should You Work Through The Pain?

You know the feeling when you start getting ill? You aren’t firing on all cylinders, but you soldier on nevertheless, hoping that you miraculously might get better.

A few days later, things are heading downhill fast, so you decide to take some painkillers and tough it out. Life doesn’t stop for anything – no little illness is going to defeat you. Then, a week later you barely manage to crawl out of bed and decide to drag yourself along to the medical centre. If you had treated the original symptoms, you could of been better by now, as it is you have complications and as a result are confined to bed for a fortnight….

Foolish decisions lead to serious consequences.

There is often a similar process when it comes to ignoring the deteriorating health of a team. Managers first start to see little niggles starting in relationships. Deadlines may get missed and work doesn’t quite get done to specification. People gradually stop taking responsibility for their actions and everyone seems that little bit less interested. Managers choose to turn a blind eye; these things happen – work is stressful sometimes. So a few projects fall off the table, this is bound to happen at times, right?

A few months pass. The disagreements are more often, and the arguments are louder – the first person signs off work for stress and the first person decides to leave. Customers are calling and wondering why they are not being given what they were promised. Denial is everywhere, and anyone that is even remotely responsible will be swamped by the work of others. Other members of the business are starting to notice and ask what is going on. Managers spend more and more time hidden behind their desks and “out” on business to deny the reality of the situation. It is already beyond control, but they still do nothing.

Then, the inevitable day arrives of the collapse. All hell breaks loose, and there is nothing left for the manager to do except resign. They have totally lost control and have no authority left. Their team is left without a rudder and is governed by the laws of the jungle rather than any normal office etiquette….

Granted, this scenario doesn’t often happen in business. This could always be a possibility however, if a manager begins to neglect their team. If problems aren’t nipped in the bud, they don’t get better by themselves. Treat them with a dose of coaching, a few training pills, a bandage of discussions or a soothing drink of empathy. If you take care of your team, your team will take care of you. If you neglect them, as with your health, the situation tends to go downhill fast.

Don’t work through the pain. Treat it before it becomes unbearable.